David Sweet

Dr David Sweet is an academic ICU physician practicing at Vancouver General Hospital. He is co-founder and co-president of the Clarity Foundation, a Not-For-Profit formed to fight misinformation/Disinformation on social media and the internet. Additionally, David is the Executive Medical Director for the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council. David completed his undergraduate education at the University of Calgary in cellular, molecular, microbiology, and genetics. David completed medical school at University of Alberta where he won the Gold Medal for his medical school class and also the University of Alberta’s highest academic achievement, The Governor General's Silver Medal. David then completed both an emergency medicine residency and a Critical Care (ICU) fellowship at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He has a full time practice in Critical Care medicine at Vancouver General Hospital, BC, Canada. Since 2010 David has worked passionately at improving the quality of care delivered to sepsis and septic shock patients in British Columbia, as the provincial clinical lead for sepsis quality improvement with the BC Patient Safety Quality Council (BCPSQC). In 2015 he received the Global Sepsis Award for his contributions to the field. In a recent publication, the BCPSQC announced that their BC Sepsis Network averted 981 sepsis cases and 172 deaths, and saved British Columbia $50.6m over a 4 year period when compared to the rest of Canada. Last year David became the Executive Medical Director for the BCPSQC, where he helps improve the safety and quality of healthcare delivered to all British Columbians. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Canada in March 2020, he founded, led, and chaired the British Columbia COVID-19 Therapeutics Committee, a team of 50+ physicians, pharmacists, and scientists who performed real-time peer reviews of emerging treatments for COVID-19. Much of Canada followed these guidelines to determine which treatment should be available to COVID-19 patients. For this work, David received a Special Service Award for distinguished physicians who have contributed significantly to patient care, education, and research which is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally. After his experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, having seen firsthand, professionally and personally, the dangers of misinformation, David co-founded and serves as co-president of the Clarity Foundation, a not-for-profit combating misinformation on social media and the internet. David has over 45 peer-reviewed publications and given over 80 invitational lectures (provincial/state, national, and international).

Large scale system change and quality improvement in health care. Practicing ICU clinically and promoting patient safety in complex medical systems. I am committed to fighting misinformation and disinformation on social media and the internet through my not-for-profit, the Clarity Foundation. In my spare time, I find peace while painting and listening to audiobooks, traveling with my wife, Kate and our dog Star, fitness, psychology/social sciences, armchair physics lover (relativity down to quantum mechanics).

In 2022, the Pew Research Center declared, "The impact of misinformation as a threat [to society] is second only to climate change.” I would take this a step further. I believe that misinformation, shared primarily through social media, may in fact be the most important existential threat to humanity, as it inhibits the mitigation of all the other potential existential threats. Whether the threat is climate change, global pandemics, conspiracy theories, or threats to democracy, if societies can’t agree on a shared common reality, there is no way to realize solutions to these global issues. Agreed-upon facts, realities, and truths are the bedrock of a functioning advanced society. I am working to find ways to support fact-based reality in order to support humanity’s progress and protect modern open societies.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay-Thai (when younger), Painting. Playing “keep away” with our Dog Star 💫💫💫.